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The Army of Yeokcheon (1)
Rangers who had been sent out on patrol returned to Winter Castle one by one.
“The atmosphere in the mountains is unusual, m’lord. Even if it is quiet, it is too quiet.”
“Aye. The small beasts do not scurry through the bush, and the big beasts do not leave their dens. The monsters do not show their presence, as if the entire mountain range is terrified by something.”
They gave hurried reports about the strange atmosphere reigning in the Blade’s Edge Mountains.
“To explain it, m’lord – it feels like the quiet eve before the storm.”
Veteran rangers who had survived the war against the Warlord expressed their concern, and it was clear that something inevitable was about to occur.
The problem was that Vincent couldn’t figure out what it was.
“There has never been a thing like this, in all my years, m’lord.”
Even when the orcs had descended in their tens of thousands had the atmosphere of the mountain not been like this. Studying the records of preceding counts, not a single such case existed.
“In this case, it would be wise to ask the first prince what he knows.”
However, the first prince was stuck in his rooms for some reason and showed no signs of leaving. He had just left once, to order the sending of ranger patrols to scout the situation in the mountains and beyond the range itself.
When Vincent had visited the first prince’s quarters with a heavy heart, the elves standing firmly at the door asked that he come back later. They said their Highness was crossing an important hurdle and was not to be disturbed.
“Why now, of all time?” Vincent had grumbled.
It was a thing to be celebrated if a knight progressed. However, since it was occurring at such an inopportune time, Vincent was more irritated than in any mood to celebrate.
“All the work is done,” Vincent complained to himself. He then spoke to the soldiers with him, telling them to summon the commanders of each unit.
The faces of the gathered commanders were hard. They all seemed to know the unusual atmosphere permeating the mountain was unusual.
These were men who had lived beside the monster-filled mountain range all their lives, so if they did not feel the abnormality in the air, it would be strange indeed. They talked on and on.
“His Highness the First Prince said that 
”
“If His Highness thinks 
”
The first words of these veteran monster-fighters were all about the first prince.
What is the first prince’s message? Send a messenger to the first prince. What does the first prince plan to do? Did you hear anything about the first prince’s plans? The first prince- the first prince – The First Prince!
Vincent listened to them talk, and it felt as if he was being continually beaten by a cudgel on the head.
His own presence was mostly ignored by these commanders seeking the presence of Prince Adrian.
Vincent’s mind flashed. It shouldn’t be like this!
It was the destiny, the duty of the men of Balahard to guard the north, and not the duty of a prince who had not even deemed it worthy of attending the meeting.
Vincent took a deep breath and made up his mind.
‘Dwak!’ he slammed his hands to the table as if wishing to break it.
“Since when on earth,” he started his rebuke, “do the men of Balahard just stand around, waiting for someone to get the job done for them!?”
The commanders stretched their eyes wide. Shame swiftly surfaced on their faces, for they were stunned and perplexed by the sudden anger of their new count.
“What is the symbol of Balahard?” Vincent demanded.
“Three interlocking shields!” came the cry.
“What do those three layered shields stand for?”
“Courage, wisdom, and duty!”
‘Bwaaa!’ Vincent slammed down on the table once more.
“Do you think anyone of you has a single one of them right now?”
The commanders jumped from their seats and bowed deeply before Count Balahard.
“Sorry!”
“And all you do now is apologize?”
“We know-“
“I know that all you know is how to procrastinate!”
The commanders of Winter Castle re-mounted their seats.
Then, they began to formulate and set in motion countermeasures and considered strategic contingencies.
“If we expand the territory that the rangers rove to the northeast 
”
“By strengthening the long-distance patrols by so many men, we can 
”
Only then did Vincent’s stone-hard face loose up a little.
* * *
Although they had looked silly for a while, the commanders of Winter Castle were in no way incompetent. The somewhat chaotic and cluttered atmosphere that had reigned in the fortress was quickly brought into order.
On the walls were now double the number of rangers. Ranger commanders led short-range patrols several times a day as they entered and left by the gates. Even the Black Lancers, Quéon included, began to fervently patrol the edges of the mountain range in preparation for some emergency.
It was clear: Winter Castle was on a war footing.
The dwarves greatly admired the hustle and bustle from their vantage point on the wall.
“I am greatly impressed. The soldiers here take to war as a pickaxe does to stone.”
Despite the dwarf having complimented him, Vincent replied with an unpleasant expression.
“If only you had come last winter, old dwarf, you would have seen us move ten times faster than this.”
Most of the soldiers stationed on the walls were recruits, for so many veterans had died in the orcish war. The martial spirit was alive and well, but the true spirit of battle in these men was still too insufficient for them to be called real soldiers.
“Have anyone of the rangers who had crossed the mountain range come back?”
The Ranger Company Commander shook his head at Vincent’s inquiry.
There were twenty squads of ten rangers that had left for the territories beyond the Blade’s Edge Mountains. These men were elite rangers, and most of them were veterans. They were men who had returned from their missions even when the mountain had been swarming with monsters.
Not one of them has yet returned.
That was never a good sign.
“What the hell is out there,” Vincent muttered as his gaze roved beyond the rugged peaks of the Blade’s Edge Mountains.
The mountains and fields were a pure white, and the sky blue, yet somehow, there was a gray cast to the sky.
“If you can only give me a few rangers, I’ll be off at once!” came the distressed request of a young man.
He was Bernardo Eli.
“Suborn them to you?”
“Please, grant me a few guides. I’m going with our kids, my apprentices.”
Bernardo’s sloppy attitude was not one that engendered much faith from Vincent. The man wasn’t trustworthy, Count Balahard mused, like a snake that slithered into its hole, only coming out once the danger has passed.
“Oh well, okay then, even if it is better if you leave the patrols to me,” Vincent said with a laugh, amused at the absurd attitude of Bernardo Eli.
The man conducted his patrols like an old woman shopping for fruit at the market!
Even so, when he first came here, he had been an exiled noble. Since then, Winter Castle had become his home.
“Does your mission have clearance from His Highness the First Prince?” Vincent asked.
“Since when does Prince Adrian manage our patrols?” Bernardo replied with some anxiety.
He wasn’t wrong, so Vincent gave a sympathetic nod.
“Jordan!”
“Jordan is here!” shouted Ranger Jordan from the other side of the wall as he jumped down and jogged to Vincent.
“Your platoon will support Eli and his guys.”
“Okay- Is this supposed to be a long-distance patrol, m’lord?”
Vincent nodded, and Jordan bowed.
“Damned it is, though. Every time I enter the castle gates and settle down for a good rest, I’m sent out on another mission. Going on like this, I’m sure to die in the mountains.”
Vincent laughed as he listened to Jordan’s complaints.
“I’ll grant you a special, month-long leave if you return safely from this mission.”
“I’ll be sure to return then, m’lord!” Jordan exclaimed as his attitude changed in an instant. He sketched a quick salute and ran across the wall as he gathered his troops.
“Lads, we got a mission!”
“A mission? Chief, ain’t it our resting time, now?”
“Don’t the ranger cubs get to go out and run around in the snow, then? Somehow we always get hit with these jobs, innit?”
“Shut up, boys! Hear me, as long we return safely, we’ve got ourselves a month’s vacation in the bag. So shut up, and gear up!”
“I can’t trust you alone with my men,” Vincent said as he looked at Bernardo Eli, who was watching Jordan bicker with his platoon.
* * *
Early next morning, Bernardo Eli and ten apprentice knights left the fortress, accompanied by Jordan and his rangers of the 17th Platoon.
It was now eight days since the first prince had locked himself in his rooms.
Three days later, the rangers and the knights returned from the mountain range.
“Why do they return so early?” mused a coupled of keen-eyed rangers. The patrol should have taken ten or more days to scout and return.
“Huh!? Hah! It looks like they are being chased!” someone shouted out as he observed Bernardo and his party. The men were running from the mountain range with a terrible urgency.
“Look to their rear!” came a cry.
The rangers along the walls looked to the snowfield behind Bernardo and his party.
Orcs, goblins, kobolds, gnolls, dire wolves – all manner of monsters were pouring in from the mouth of the mountain pass from which the knights and rangers had appeared.
“It’s crazy! There are trolls too!”
Even the trolls, who were the apex predators in the mountain, were among the various monsters, the number of which grew and grew in every instant.
The guards on the wall commanded the sounding of the horns.
‘Bawooo! Bawooo!’ echoed their sound throughout the fortress.
The quiet winter air had suddenly become noisy, and the castle became a buzzing hive of activity.
Rangers grabbed bows and crossbows, staring out across the snowy field.
Bernardo, the knights, and the 17th Ranger Platoon were running for their lives as the swarming mass of monsters bore down on them.
‘Drawooor!’ howled the swift-pawed dire wolves as they stalked ever closer to the humans.
“Faster! Run faster!” rangers shouted their encouragement. However, no matter how fast a human moved its legs, it could never out-pace those four-legged beasts.
“Aah!? No!” the men on the walls cried as a trailing ranger got caught up by a dire wolf.
“Tah! It reached him!”
The wolf leaped and sank its jaws into the man’s face, ripping his jaw clean from his skull.
It was not only dire wolves who pressed the hunt.
The rangers of Winter Castle looked on as scruffy orcs continued the chase, as well as mighty trolls with their beaked faces and necrotic flesh – all chased Bernardo’s party.
“What is this? What’s happening?”
The rangers were utterly confused by what they were seeing. The rangers and apprentices were fleeing monsters!
It was totally unknown for monsters to live in harmony across species-lines. Was there a rarer sight in this world to see?
“Balahard Rangers!” a mana-enhanced voice echoed across the walls.
“Prepare for engagement!”
Count Balahard had raised his sword and pointed out to the snowfield as he voiced his orders.
“As soon as they come in range, prioritize firing at the monsters closest to them!”
The rangers hurriedly readied their bows and crossbows, their faces nervous as they watched the approaching horde.
“Black Lancers! You are to charge at the monsters and save your comrades!”
The knights had already mounted up, and charged through the gate.
“Fire!” Vincent bellowed the instant that the lancers rode out. Arrows were loosed and swarmed through the air into the flesh of monsters.
“I feel so good!” exclaimed the one-eyed cavalry commander, QuĂ©on Lichtheim, as he readied his lance with an excited face.
The Black Lancers veered their mounts to the right and rode on for a time. Then they grabbed onto the reigns and directed their horses to the left as they began to ride over a gentle slope, which brought them directly into the flank of the monstrous horde.
“Ready lances!”
Dozens of mana-imbued lance tips shredded monster flesh as the cavalry wedge crashed into the swarm of monsters.
Quéon frowned. His horsemen were used to fighting monsters, but the ones they now faced were different in some manner.
They should have noticed the sound of hoof-falls on the snow as well as the fact that the cavalry had engaged with them – yet, such things did not get their attention. They just looked ahead and kept on running.
Thinking time came later, Quéon decided, and proceeded to kill monsters left and right. He then saw the fleeing rangers and apprentice knights.
“Save one and immediately turn back!”
“Ha!” came the reply of his men.
He rode on and came up behind Bernardo Eli.
“Fuck it, fuck it! I’m not a runner! What the fuck did I do wrong to have such a day? It’s as if I have honey all over my body, and the badgers were set loose! I go out there, just to give the monsters a fine meal!?”
Bernardo did not cease cursing and complaining, even if he was out of breath from running for his dear life.
“Relax your body, boy!” QuĂ©on crouched down in his saddle, leaned away from his horse, and snatched Bernardo up, slinging him onto the horse’s back in a maneuver that would have made any circus acrobat blush in shame.
“Now calm your mind, boy! We head back and report to His Highness!” came QuĂ©on’s bold words.
“These monsters are not really the problem,” Bernardo cried out as he gasped for air.
“What?” came the gruff knight’s reply.
“The guys way back there, they’re the true problem!” Bernardo said and pointed to the mountain range behind them.
“There are strange 
 things in there!”